When heavy snow started falling Dec. 18 Mary Filipovic at Northwest Hospital made a call to Doug’s Northwest Cadillac/Hummer dealership in Shoreline.
That same afternoon, patients and hospital staff began to be transported to and from Northwest Hospital in new H2 and H3 Hummers from the dealership. Over the next four days, the snow continued to pile up on city streets but the employees of Doug’s Northwest Cadillac/Hummer didn’t stop driving.
In all, over 50 people were transported throughout North Seattle, Edmonds and Kenmore, Filipovic said on Dec. 31.
“We just pretty much kept in contact … gave them our personal cell phone numbers, it was crazy,” Marilyn Greenberg, business manager at Doug’s said.
Greenberg joined co-workers Stan Cross, Tyler Messer, Ray Oita and dealership owner Marc Ikegami in volunteering their time to drive. They asked for nothing in return for the service.
“When we received the call we all just wanted to do it because we knew it was the right thing to do,” Greenberg said. “We all had a job to do and we did our part.”
Ikegami shouldered the responsibility of most of the driving, she added, taking on passengers in various waves from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Dec. 21.
Passengers were thankful for the ride and took photos inside and outside of the new vehicles, according to Ikegami. Despite hazardous road conditions everyone was able to make to reach their destination, he said.
“We sell Hummers, realistically we aren’t taking them off-road but there was nowhere we weren’t able to get to,” Ikegami said.
The dealership helped the Fred Hutchinson Center transport patients when bad weather hit in 1996, Greenberg said. It’s possible the dealership will be a part of the hospital’s plans if bad weather or a disaster limits other transportation options in the future.
“I would love to do it again but hopefully we won’t have to for a long time,” Ikegami said.
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